Big Sky High’s Aerie wins Montana Center for the Book Prize

Big Sky High School’s Aerie Magazine recently won a Montana Center for the Book Prize presented by Humanities Montana.

Mariah Swartz, editor of Aerie Big Sky and Aerie International said the staff of the magazine got the word of the award and will be speaking at the Festival of the Book on Saturday at the Downtown Dance Collective.

“The Aerie is a literary program at Big Sky High School and we publish two magazines every spring,” said Swartz. “One if just for Big Sky High School students only, so we collect submissions from our creative writing kids and other area members and put a magazine together full of prose, poetry, photography and art. The international is that same thing but is for students from all over the world. Last year, we received submissions from Nepal and the Philippines and South Korea and every year we find ourselves accepting and awarding new students from new countries.”

Swartz said Aerie and Aerie International is in its 12th year.

“The biggest way of outreach we use is ‘Submittable’, which is based in Missoula,” she said. “We open our submissions in September and close them on February 1st, and we’re grateful that kids find us on their own. It’s an organized method of submission for us so we don’t get overwhelmed with the hundreds of submissions we get.”

Swartz said Aerie is a great opportunity for students to grow beyond the community.

“It’s a great opportunity and a way to get out there in the world,” she said.